Point of No Return
by Justice Ike
Summary: Set 16 years after 'Hello,World'. Despite her parents being police officers,Cally has turned out to be a rebellious daughter. After she witnesses an incident,both herself and her friend Creole find themselves in danger. Where and who will she turn to?
1. Loved But Lost

**Point of No Return Pt. 1  
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**Sequel to Hello,World. Please R and R! Will update soon!**

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It was late autumn and already the south London sky was a brilliant mixture of shining gold, fiery orange and crimson as the sun slowly began its descent into the maw of the awaiting horizon beneath it. The sunset caused the high rise flats and skyscrapers of the capital's skyline to cast snake like shadows that meandered through the streets below where the monotonous roar of car engines filled the air.

Down one of the quieter, more suburb streets in the Sun Hill district of the Canley Borough, sixteen year old Cally had just gotten off her bus and was now walking the last fifteen minutes of her journey back home from school. The teenager never walked with anyone, even though she had plenty of friends at school. It was a simple case of most of her friends either lived in the opposite direction or got off at different stops to her; she didn't mind this, though, except for the stares she often got from her neighbours. You see, Cally was a bit infamous for being a trouble maker, and she looked the part too. Her uniform was in a constant state of disarray; in fact, most of the time, you could only tell she was in uniform because of the brightly coloured school badge on her blazer that denoted she was from the secondary school, Canley Comprehensive, often called Canley Comp for short by pupils and parents alike. Cally didn't just have a reputation for being troublesome with her neighbours – she often was in trouble at school as well. She had just been suspended from lessons for two days following a fight with a fellow pupil who had called her a bitch because of a previous incident she had been involved in. Cally had almost broken the nose of her offender and had she not have been restrained by her form tutor (whom she had promptly sworn at after, thereby lengthening her punishment), she would have probably done a lot more damage. The whole thing eventually boiled down to hers and her friend's words against that of who she had hit and her group of friends, and Cally knew who was going to win that one. Let's see: Troublemakers vs. 'Teacher's Pet'. It was a no brainer in her mind. Cally knew she ought to be thankful for such a 'light' punishment with her string of previous, but right now she couldn't have given a damn as she strode on. She was angry, angry that the other girl had got off completely _scot free._

Cally sighed, blowing aside a strand of dark blonde hair. Her mother wasn't going to be impressed with her; her father would probably murder her. In fact, they'd probably both murder her between them; it was either that or ramble on about how she wasn't living up to the family expectations, yadda yadda etc. That was the problem when one, or in the case of Cally, _both_ of your parents were police officers. They expected you to behave in the same manner. In all honesty, Cally couldn't have given a flying fart. The last thing she wanted to be like was her parents. It hadn't always been this way; when Cally was younger, she used to admire her parent's bravery and wanted to be an officer. Several years and half her friends finding out about her parents' jobs later, her mind had turned bitter to this dream, and consequently, her parents, who she blamed indirectly for the troubles she was in now.

It wasn't long before Cally found herself nearing her driveway. Her jewelled eyes of olive green and sky blue gazed at the driveway half expectantly, but she already knew that neither of her parents' cars would be there to greet her. Any other day she wouldn't have given a damn (she was used to looking after herself) but today it was a relief. It meant she could go out, steel herself up and plan how she was going to tell her parents of her suspension before they got back. Cally dragged herself up to the front door of her house, got her rather battered looking house key out of her blazer pocket and unlocked the door, pushing it open as she did so. A pile of mail greeted her, followed by Dale and Leon, her family's two hyperactive shelties. They were both near black tri coloured dogs, with a white collar and tail tip. The only way you could tell them apart was that Dale was slightly larger and had one unusual, fully brown ear, whereas Leon had normal ears, but a brown nose stripe. Cally loved them both; they understood her better than her parents did. She rewarded their patience by massaging their ears, before picking up the mail pile on the floor and placing it on the ironing board in the hallway; after that, Cally went straight up to her room where she found Milo, her completely black cat, sitting on her bed in typical Milo fashion, waiting for her and staring at her as she came in. After watching his owner dump her bag on the floor and sit on the bed in a huff, he leapt into her arms instantly.

Cally smiled a little, stroking Milo on the head, who purred in response to the attention. If anyone understood her more than Dale and Leon, it was probably Milo. She swore he could read her mind because he always seemed to know what to do when she was angry or down, and always knew when she wanted to be left alone. Likewise, she could read him, but Cally suspected Milo had the much better skill.

"Is that nice, Milo-boy?" She asked him quietly. He replied by nuzzling her open palm with his bright pink nose. His white whiskers tickled her, causing her to giggle. "All right, off now boy. I'll give you bisc-bisc in a minute, yeah?" She fondled his ears one last time before he leapt of her lap and sat outside her room, waiting patiently.

Cally wasted no time in getting out of her uniform and into a dark purple top and ripped black jeans. She pulled a black hoodie over her head, as well as a couple of silver studded, leather fingerless gloves. Throwing her school shoes aside, she put on some purple and black sketchers trainers, smirking at her reflection in the mirror, before adding the final touch of purposely messing up her hair. Cally walked out of her room, pulling her hood up, feeling like a different person. Milo meowed at her feet and she picked him up, taking him downstairs to the kitchen, where the cat treats were kept and rewarded him with a couple, leaving him on the work surface to eat them happily. Exiting the house, she pulled the handle of the door up to secure the house a bit more, but didn't lock the door. Double checking she had her phone in her pocket, the rebellious teen set off to find her friend, Creole.

If only Cally knew what was in store for her, then maybe she might not have set off at all...


	2. Change of Fortune

**Point of No Return Pt. 2**

**Sorry for the shortness. Part 3 WILL be longer.**

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Cally arrived at the bus stop just in time to catch the next bus to the High Street. She hadn't arranged to meet with Creole, but she knew he would be hanging out in one of the underpasses of the High Street – it was always where he was when he wasn't at home. She was about three quarters of a year his junior – he was already seventeen – and her parents, especially her father, didn't approve of him. Cally had once stood up to her father about this, looked him in the eye and, forgetting her honorary uncle, Ben, was also black, called him a racist pig, which earned her being grounded for a week, although Cally had escaped out of her bedroom window and stayed at Creole's house for a bit, before he persuaded her in his gentle way to see sense and go back home. As she sat down on a seat on the bus, Cally sighed. Sometimes she thought she didn't deserve a guy like Creole. He was about the only being that wasn't her pets that understood her fully – or rather the only person who _attempted _(other than her other friends) to understand her. Her parents had long ago given up; her teachers, too, found Cally to be a rather complicated pupil. Or as they called her, a 'troubled' pupil. Some people would just never understand who she truly was, and if they didn't now, she wasn't about to explain to them.

Finally, the bus neared where Cally wanted to get off, and she pressed the red stop bell button near where she was sat. Within a minute the bus pulled to a halt at the next stop, allowing the teen and a couple of other passengers to step off into the growing darkness of the ever cooling autumnal evening. The sun had long dipped under the horizon and the last of the scattered crimson rays of light were fast fading into navy blue and inky black. As the bus pulled away from the stop, Cally spotted the bright orb that was Venus behind a veil of cloud; she was never a big fan of horoscopes but Cally had remembered reading that for her sign, the appearance of Venus in October was a sign of changing fortune and great luck in love. As she turned to walk down the High Street, Cally knew she could do with a change in fortune.

Meandering past people, the teenager kept her blue and green eyes carefully trained on people's faces just in case one of them happened to be Creole, even though she knew it was unlikely. He was a person of habit – he nearly always hung out in the same places to the exact, never just outside or near, always exactly where he was the day before. _But you never know,_ Cally had always told herself; there had been exceptions in the past, but those were few and far between. So, she just decided to stick with her original plan and make her way towards the last underpass on the High Street.

15 minutes of non-stop walking and half freezing to death from the sudden wind chill later, Cally found herself nearing her destination. As she walked past an alleyway however, she was distracted by the sounds of what appeared to be a commotion between two people, one of which was male. She was about to continue on and think nothing of it, when there was suddenly a high pitched and feminine sounding scream, before everything died down to silence. Cally found herself stopping mid-stride without even thinking. Despite her ill nature, deep down in her foundations, she had all the hallmarks of a curious copper and she couldn't help but want to go and see what the fuss was about. Clenching her fists and poising them to lash out just in case the other person of the commotion was still there and happened to be hostile, Cally walked stealthily into the alleyway, unsure of what she was going to find there...


	3. Turn of a Sixpence

**Point Of No Return Pt. 3**

**When I promise,I deliver! R and R as always!**

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Slowly, Cally crept forward further into the alley, her heart racing tenfold as the adrenaline coursed around her body. It wasn't fear exactly, but something about the alley made her uneasy. The smell of fresh blood soon entered the teen's nose, almost making her gag. Other smells soon became detectable to her – the rancid smell of alcohol, of drugs, cigarettes... It was an almost unbearable, intoxicating combination and it made Cally wonder momentarily how bad it would have actually smelt if her nose hadn't been blocked up.

A sharp groan distracted her from her thoughts momentarily, making the teen jump. The dreadful sound had come from directly ahead of her, just from behind a wheelie-bin. Biting her lip, Cally forced herself to go investigate. She might have been rebellious, but even she didn't have a cold enough heart to leave someone for dead. Pulling herself hesitantly around the bin, she happened upon a woman who had seen better days. She had taken some pasting, from what Cally could see, and her clothes were torn in places. Even though it was dark in the alley, she could clearly see the blood on the woman's blonde hair. Unlooked for and uneasy images of her mother flashed in her mind, but Cally soon realised the woman was not her mother. Her hands relaxed slightly.

"Excuse me? Do you need any help?" Cally asked politely enough, her throat dry.

The woman before her must have not noticed her coming, for she jumped. Despite looking weak, she gave Cally a violent reaction.

"Get away from me! Don't you come near me!" She swiped at the teen, who barely had time to step back.

_So much for gratitude. _Cally bit her lip, trying a different approach. "Easy. I won't come any closer, but you really need the help. I'm not here to hurt you. Look, my name's Cally. If you don't want to tell me your name, that's fine."

For the first time, the woman lifted her head up and gazed at Cally with bright blue eyes. More images of her mother swirled in the teen's head, making her feel a little queasy. In many respects, the woman before her looked a lot like her mother, except her hair – that which wasn't bloodstained – was brighter blonde, she appeared to be more slender, and was perhaps slightly shorter, though that was hard to tell what with her being curled up on the ground. Cally spied her visibly relaxing.

"May I come closer?" She asked quietly. The woman merely nodded silently at her, and she shifted closer, sitting next to her, but not too close as to crowd her.

Cally quickly scanned the woman's injuries. Although she seemed to be in a bad way, none of her injuries were too severe; rather she looked bad because she was covered in a countless amount of cuts and grazes. Her thoughts quickly turned to the possibility of less obvious injuries. _Internal_ injuries. Cally faintly recalled a rape case that she had overheard her parents discussing a few months ago and noted how the woman seemed to be reacting in a similar manner to which her father had described the victim of her parents' case reacting. A dagger of upmost sympathy pierced her heart for a moment, before she refocused back to the task at hand.

"Look, I need to get you to hospital." Cally stated.

"No! Not the hospital." The woman almost screamed at her, before falling back against the wall, exhausted. Cally moved her arms to steady her.

"Come on, don't be silly now..." She replied softly.

"I'm **not** going to a hospital." The woman remained pretty adamant.

Cally mentally sighed. She couldn't force the woman to go to hospital, but she also knew they couldn't stay here. She needed to be taken to a safe place, but where? Cally racked her brains for a minute, thinking until her head hurt. Suddenly, she hit upon an idea, but she would need another pair of hands... that's if the woman would let her execute her plan.

"Ok, I won't call for an ambulance. But we can't stay here. I know somewhere else we can go." Cally nodded.

"Where?" The woman's sapphire eyes narrowed to become slits.

"I have this friend. He has a safe place. Do you mind if I call him?" She waved her mobile at the woman.

She seemed to think for a moment, before nodding slowly. Smiling, Cally punched Creole's number into her phone.

_Please to God pick up or I'll kick your arse, Creole. _Cally knew she was asking for a miracle; Creole rarely had his phone switched on, but she could hope.

_Ring._

_Ring._

_Ring._

"'_Ello?"_

_Thank goodness! _Cally was relieved to hear her friend's voice at the end of the line.

"Thank God you picked up, Creole! I was worried I was gonna have to ring you five times like last time!" She replied.

"_Well, isn't it my darling Tear Gas?" _Creole's African-Cockney accent thrummed down the line excitedly. _"To what do I owe you the pleasure?"_

"Now's not the time for jokes, Creole!" Cally snapped. "Listen, I really need your help."

"_You in trouble with your parents again?" _Creole immediately sobered. _"Because if you are, you can't run to mine again. My mum has her sister around, and she said no guests."_

"Well, I might be later, but no. This is worse."

"_What could possibly be worse than your father nearly murdering you?"_

"Listen, you need to come quick. I'm in the alley, the last one before the subway we usually meet in. Be quick, please, Creole!"

"_Ok, Tear Gas! I won't be long." _Cally could almost see Creole's signature lopsided grin.

"Thank you! Oh, and would you please stop calling me that ridiculous name! Just because my initials are CS, doesn't mean I'm the spray!"

"_Aww, but it suits you, Cally. Anyway. I'll be about five minutes. Laters, Cally!"_

"Be careful, Creole! See you in five!" Cally replied, before hanging up. She turned back to the woman.

"Did you contact your friend?" She asked her weakly.

"Yes. He should be here in five minutes. Then we can get out of here." The teen replied softly.

"Good. Because this wall is killing my back."

Despite the severity of the situation, Cally couldn't help but laugh dryly at that comment. Here was a woman, injured up to her eyes, and all she could complain about was how much the wall hurt her back.

Sometimes, Cally thought people couldn't get any weirder, but once again, she had been proven wrong.

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It wasn't long before Cally felt fast paced footfalls drumming down the alleyway. She turned her head quickly, and the dark skinned Creole greeted her. He was wearing grubby jeans and a red hoodie, the hood of which he pulled off his head, revealing a mass of natural, messy dark brown dreadlocks which partially covered his good eye. His scarred eye, from where his dad once bottled him, looked more clouded over and icy coloured than Cally was used to. She spied Creole staring at her carefully with his good right eye, before both his eyes widened in shock at the woman behind her.

"What the heck happened, Cals?" He spluttered quietly at her.

"I don't know. I heard screaming, and I found her like that." Cally explained quickly. "She refuses to go to the hospital, so I thought the next place to take her would be to my parents."

"So why'dya call me, then?"

"She's in no fit state to stand unaided, Creole. This is a two person job."

"If your dad sees me, he'll murder me! You know he doesn't approve of me, Cals!" He hissed.

"I know. But this is the only way. I'm _not _leaving her here for whoever it was to finish her off." She sighed. "Hopefully, we won't see my dad. He might be busy. He usually is."

Creole gave in. "Fine. But if he roasts me, I'll call you Tear Gas for the rest of your life, and you will owe me big time, lady." He threatened.

"Deal. Now, help me out, would you?"

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It took a lot of persuading, but they finally got the woman to lean on them both, and the slowly took her out of the alley, before heading for the police station. The officer on desk duty was thoroughly shocked when he saw Cally, Creole and the woman pile in through the front door. Leaving her friend with the woman, Cally went towards the desk.

_Who to ask for? I know! Mel or Ben. They'll know what to do._

"Excuse me? Can I help you?" The male voice caused her to snap to attention.

"Yeah. I'm looking for PC Mel Ryder or PC Ben Gayle. Are either of them about?" Cally asked.

"They should be. Let me check." The officer nodded, picking up a phone.

Before he could dial the number, the door next to reception opened wide, causing Cally to whirl around. Out of it came Mel and behind her, Cally's dad, Sergeant Stone.

"Cally!" They both exclaimed at the same time, before her dad's attention turned to her friend. "Callis! What are you doing here...?" His imminent roasting was cut short by Mel gasping and pointing at the woman Creole was attending to.

"_Kirsty?"_

The blonde haired woman slowly raised her head in acknowledgement, gazing fearfully at her colleagues. Cally had never seen her father and Mel so terrified in her life. She saw her dad swallow in horror.

"PC Knight?" He crouched down by her side, but she barely seemed to know he was there. "What on earth happened to you?"

Silence followed for a moment, before a quiet, timid voice filled the air and tears began to fall down Kirsty's face as she tried to reply.

"_Sarge...h-he...raped me..."_


	4. Change of Heart

**Point of No Return Pt. 4**

**Sorry for delay! Please R and R! ^^**

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After Mel had finally persuaded Kirsty to come with her to go see the FME, Cally soon found herself, alongside Creole, getting practically dragged to the soft interview room by her father, so fast, they didn't even realised they had moved until Cally's father had set them both down forcefully on the sofas in the soft interview room and he had begun questioning the pair.

"What the heck happened, Cally?" Callum asked her quickly, sitting down opposite the two teenagers.

In any other situation, Cally would have remarked on how it was against protocol for him to be interviewing her, but she knew that this was serious. Besides, it wasn't like this was a formal interview or anything, she reminded herself. She could leave at anytime, though she was certain her dad probably wasn't going to let her until they had both answered all of his questions.

"I-I don't know." Her usually calm voice swayed a little.

"You don't know?" The sergeant echoed back at her, sighing exasperatingly. "You find a woman, one of my officers. You bring her to the last place on Earth you would venture, and you don't know what happened? Surely something must have happened to make you want to bring her here. Perhaps you saw something; maybe you heard something, I don't know. But I'm not a mind reader, Cally, so help me out here!"

The harshness of her father's tone shook her and she could feel tears welling in her eyes. But she refused to give her father the satisfaction of knowing he had gotten to her. Creole didn't miss the extra glistening in her eyes, and he glared at Callum warningly.

"Mr. Stone, sir, I know you want answers, but this is kinda shocking for us, you know? Can't this wait until we are more composed?" Creole questioned politely.

"Not really, Callis, no. I have a police officer raped back there and I need to find who did this to her. Also, if I left you, it would give you an opportunity to confer stories."

"Oh dad, listen to yourself!" Cally snapped at her father. "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to confer with Creole? Who says we haven't on the way down already? It really doesn't make much of a difference. We know how serious this; _I_ hear it from you and mum every day. Do you really think I would have come all this way with your colleague and Creole if I was gonna mess you about? I may not live up to your ideals, dad, but I still have morals! I still have a heart."

For once, Callum had no retort for his daughter. He just stared at her, speechless for a moment, before gathering himself together.

"Fine, I'll get someone else to do this later." He rose, defeated by his own daughter. As he turned to leave, his daughter whispered something else.

"I heard a scream, and I just found her there, lying in the alley..."

This was enough to make Callum sit back down again. He smiled a little. Maybe not all was lost.

"Okay. Let's start from the beginning then, shall we?"

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It took about half an hour for Cally to tell her father what had happened prior to her finding Kirsty. The only part she neglected to tell him about was her suspension from lessons for two days being the reason she had gone out in the first place. Luckily for her, her father didn't push her on it and instead allowed her to continue until he was satisfied he had gotten all he was going to get from his daughter. He wasted no time in moving onto Creole.

"So, where were you then, Callis?" Callum's voice couldn't have dripped with more suspicion.

"Dad!" Cally protested straight away, but Creole silenced her with a wave of his hand.

"It's fine, Cals. If your dad needs to know, he needs to know." He reasoned, before turning to Callum. "I was in a subway, the last one on the High Street with a few mates of mine."

"I'll be needing names later." The sergeant told him quietly.

"Of course." Creole nodded. "Anyway, I get a call from your daughter saying she needs help, so of course I go looking for her."

"Did you walk alone?"

"No. One of my mates, Ross, came with me. He showed me a shortcut to get there faster, and a couple of minutes before I found Cally, he had to go home. I was practically outside the alley at this point."

"Did you notice anyone suspicious hanging around?"

"If there was, I didn't see them." Creole shook his head.

This continued on for another five minutes before Callum was finally fully satisfied. He quickly rose from the sofa.

"All right, I want you both to stay here. Another officer will be down here to look after you." He stated, before turning to exit the room. Just as he reached the door, Cally suddenly piped up.

"Dad?"

He stopped, turning his head back to his daughter. "Yes, Cally?"

"Promise me you'll get the man who did this to Kirsty?"

Callum was quite taken aback at this request coming from his daughter's mouth. For the first time in just over eight years, he properly smiled at his daughter, and as he replied, he used her nickname for the first time ever. "Of course , Cals. They won't be getting away with it, that's for sure."

With that, Callum finally turned and exited the soft interview room. Before he could check on Kirsty, there was someone else he needed to see first.


	5. Revelations

**Point of No Return Pt. 5**

**Sorry for taking forever. School work and stuff,you know? I can't promise I'm going to write any faster,either. But I'll try and write what I can.**

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Callum meandered around the corridors of the station, his eyes searching for one person only. His first port of call was the canteen, which he found to be unusually devoid of people. He then tried custody and the interview rooms, no luck. It wasn't the end of the shift yet, so they wouldn't be in the changing rooms either. Maybe they were still out on patrol...

"She's upstairs in CID, sarge." An amused voice shot from behind him. Callum whirled with a start, only to find Ben giving him a look that matched his tone.

"All right, thanks Ben." He answered, somewhat startled at the PC's uncanny ability to read his mind and know who he was looking for. "Oh yes, one other thing. You are needed at the soft interview room. I need you to look after someone for me."

"Of course sarge; a witness to something, I take it?"

"Cally."

The one word reply that Callum had supplied made Ben's mouth drop open silently, but before he could gather himself for a reply, the sergeant had already disappeared up the CID stairs.

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Callum burst through the CID doors as though they were they not there, eyes scanning for Sally as he strode on like he was the only person in the world. A few DCs dodged out of his path before he finally stopped in the middle of CID. For the detectives working up there, this had become somewhat of a familiar sight – Callum striding into CID like this only meant two things: trouble with his daughter and him needing to speak to Sally, usually both combined into one.

"Whoa, where's the fire?"

The sergeant whirled around to face the direction in which the amused question had come from, only to find it had come from his fellow uniformed sergeant, Jo, who had obviously never witnessed this before. A string of sighs that signalled this was a regular occurrence were directed at her before Mickey answered the question that Callum now never needed to ask whenever he came up to CID with all guns blazing.

"She's fillin' in the guv on a case; she'll be out in a moment, sarge."

"Thanks, Mickey. Tell her to come find me in my office when she's done."

With that, Callum turned on the ball of his foot, and was gone again.

* * *

Looking up from some random piece of paperwork that had managed to amuse him for the past ten minutes while he waited for his wife, Callum's gaze fell quickly upon the aforementioned person stood in the doorway to his office, waiting to be invited in. The sergeant bode her in with a quick nod of his head and, without needing to be told, Sally shut the door behind her.

"You know, you don't need to wait for me to grant you entry, sweetheart." Callum smiled at his wife.

"What's she done this time, Cal?" Sally let out in an exasperated sigh, getting straight to the point.

Callum returned his wife's sigh, his smile fading. "Nothing, as far as I can tell."

"Then why call me here?"

"She's in the station, Sal. Her and that Callis lad." Callum hummed disapprovingly when he said Creole's name.

"What? You mean that kid with the scarred eye? Creole? Did they get arrested?" Sally asked frantically.

"No. But they most certainly didn't come alone." Unexpectedly, the sergeant rose. "Come with me. I need to show you something." He moved towards the other door of the sergeants' office, opening it for his wife before he followed her quickly behind, soon taking the lead as the pair headed towards the FME's room.

* * *

It didn't take long for the pair to reach the FME's room, which Mel was waiting outside of. She greeted sergeant and constable with a grave stare and a shake of her head before glancing back at the door to the FME's room with a worried expression.

"How is she?" Callum broke the uneasy silence after a pause. "She said anything?"

"Not much since you spoke to her." Mel answered, her eyes still trained on the door. "She seems pretty shaken up, sarge. I've tried to convince her to go to the hospital, but she won't budge. One thing's for sure – the FME definitely confirmed Kirsty has been assaulted in some way. In what way, she can't tell yet."

Sally's lips formed a silent 'o' shape upon learning Kirsty had been raped. Putting two and two together, she was able ascertain correctly that her daughter had found Kirsty, and had come to the station for help.

"Hmm, Cally told me a similar thing with the hospital situation." Callum looked thoughtful for a moment. "All right Mel. You look after her, and make sure she goes to the hospital. She needs checking over fully."

"I'll try my best to persuade her, sarge."

With that, the sergeant turned, walking back the way he came, followed by his wife.

* * *

"Kirsty was raped?" Sally exclaimed the question to her husband as soon as they were back in the privacy of his office. She did not wait for him to answer, and nor was she expecting him to. "I take it Cally and Creole were the ones who bought her here?"

"Yes, they were." Callum replied simply, sitting down at his desk. His gaze never left his wife.

"Where is she, Cal? I need to see her!"

"Sal..." The sergeant rose, wandering towards his wife and placing a hand on her shoulder lightly. "I don't think that is a great idea..."

"Please!" She was practically begging him. "Just five minutes."

Callum let out a sigh, before nodding. "All right. Ben's looking after them in the soft interview room."

"Thank you." Sally pulled away from him, flying out of the office and down the corridor, leaving Callum to stare after her, before he slowly lowered his hand to his side and let out another sigh.

* * *

When the door to the soft interview room burst open suddenly, Cally had scrambled to her feet in alarm before either Creole or her godfather and uncle of sorts, Ben, knew what was going on. As soon as she saw the face of the newcomer, Cally visibly relaxed, though how she found the presence of her own mother relaxing, now of all the circumstances in the world, was beyond her. She was faintly aware of Creole standing up just after her, before placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. She was pretty sure Ben hadn't risen yet.

"M-mum...?" Cally couldn't help but stutter the single word out, and was shocked by how timid her voice sounded. She felt Creole's grip tighten.

"Why don't you and Creole sit down, and I'll be back in a moment." Sally nodded at her daughter, before gesturing to Ben, pointing outside. Her friend and colleague rose, following her outside where they engaged in whispered conversation.

"Did she say anything to you?" Sally asked Ben first of all.

"Yeah, she told me most of what happened." He replied, before hushing his tone a little. "Is it true about Kirsty?"

"She's not in a good way, Ben. Mel's trying to get her to go to the hospital, but apparently she won't budge." Sally shook her head a little sadly.

"Hmm, you're right. That's not good at all."

"Listen, Ben, do you think you can keep this to yourself?"

"Of course. I'll leave you to it. And tell Cally that she needs to go through a witness statement tomorrow." The older constable let out a sigh, before walking towards the canteen. Sally watched her friend leave for a moment, before turning around and entering into the soft interview room

"All right you two, let's get you both home."


End file.
